The Five-Minute Marriage by Joan Aiken

Author:Joan Aiken
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

Nine

The scene that met her eyes was so orderly that Delphie could have laughed at herself for her wild imaginings. She did not quite know what she had imagined, but it certainly had not been anything like this: a small narrow couch, with a small frail person, wrapped in shawls, lying back against a pile of pillows, taking, from time to time, a languid stitch in a pair of boy’s trousers in which she was endeavoring to mend a rent; meanwhile one boy read aloud from the works of Ovid (translating as he went), another boy stirred something in a saucepan that simmered over the fire, and a third lay on his stomach on the floor, apparently repairing a very small bridle, possibly that of a pony.

Like the room downstairs, this one was very frugally furnished; beyond the bed, a chair, a small chest, and a jug and basin, it was almost bare; Delphie began to receive an impression of poverty by the side of which she and her mother seemed quite comfortably established.

It was impossible not to remark a resemblance between Gareth Penistone and the girl—for she seemed little more—on the bed; indeed, on entering the room, Delphie had only just withheld an exclamation of surprise. She felt her cheeks burning at her own stupidity, remembering how idly she had said to Jenny, “It could have been his sister?”—and yet she had not truly thought so. There could be no question but that this was Gareth’s sister. Her face was small and pale, instead of dark and swarthy, but the shapes of cheek, brow, and nose, were identical; her eyes were as dark, but listless, where his were flashing; her hair, lighter in color than his, had been carelessly swept up into a knot on the top of her head. Jenny—not an acute or observant judge—must have been misled by the difference in stature, for this girl was very slight and small.

Gareth said, “Una, here is your cousin Delphie. Delphie, my sister Una,” with as little ceremony as when he had introduced the children. “And these are Tristram, Arthur, and Percival.”

The three boys nodded politely to Delphie. The reader stopped in the middle of a sentence. And the girl on the bed gave a faint smile as Delphie walked forward, extending her hand, and saying, “How do you do? I am very happy to meet you.”

“You will forgive my not rising, won’t you?” breathed Una softly. “I have this stupid affliction in my legs. On some days it is better. Oh dear, I have heard so much about you from Gareth. You are quite a heroine in this household, I can tell you!”

Somehow, despite her tone of wistful admiration, Delphie was made to feel that to be a heroine was rather vulgar, and that Una, given her opportunities, would have made a different use of them—but this was probably her imagination.

Una said, “I never knew that we had any more Carteret cousins, apart from that odious Elaine—but you look

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.